But you wanna know who DID study for all of his exams?! Harvard’s own Jeremy Lin. “Ohhohohohoho look at me, I’m from the Ivy League!” Linsanity is book-smart, plays in the NBA, and can get away with an Elmer’s Glue mohawk that makes that moron from Blink-182 jealous. On top of all that, he’s fantasy relevant as a H2H finals pickup! In RCL leagues with the “daily-tomorrow” setting, he’s going to be an early stream for me in the finale with a Tuesday matchup against the Sixers. Sure he’s cooled off a little bit his last two games, but 9/4/4/5/0 is still pretty saucy – his damage against the Bucks – which he put up last time out. In the finals, it’s all about streaming and anything that isn’t nailed down can go. It’s like Pirates of the Caribbean when they use their silverware in their cannons. Would it work in real life? Probably not. But in fantasy, dream away! This metaphor has gone wayyyyy downhill, if only I had an Ivy League edjamucation I might be more creative… Good luck in the Finals if you’re still in the playoffs, Razzball Nation! Here’s what went down this weekend in fantasy hoops action, plus the 7 Ahead for Week 22:

Jusuf Nurkic – Wins this weekend’s “better late than never award” going 18/4/5/1/2 on Friday night then 19/7/3/0/1 yesterday afternoon. Like a fine wine, a Jamba Jus is better with age! Just let it sit in the Styrofoam cup in your cellar for a few years!

John Henson – The Muppet Man got a new back! Or at least, ya know, a new marionette string back there… 17/10/1/0/3 and 19/8/0/1/3 over the weekend. Why did this team bring on Greg Monroe again?

Andrew Nicholson – Back-to-back streamable games, and really it’s been 5 out of 6 he’s been OK… 19/6/1 then 14/6/0/0/1 over the weekend with 3 combined treys in there… It might be time to get Nichol back!

LaMarcus Aldridge – Was so good last Friday (32/12/1/2/3) that Pop was like, “meh, you don’t need to play again this weekend and fantasy owners can take it up their rears!” Got that ominous DNP-Spurs that we’ve feared all season. But hey, it could be worse, you could be a Kawhi owner in REL!

JaMychal Green – 20/2/3/0/2 at the Spurs in that LMA bench game, giving him another spark after a 3-game lull. Man I hope he has a role next year!

Willie Cauley-Stein – Speaking of roles, how about George Karl and all the praise he gave WCS after his career game! 26/6/0/3/2 Friday night, and Karl said “Willie was good, but I think a lot of his good was we made plays for him.” In the post game interview, WCS was like:

…and followed it up with a 21/7/2 line last night as the Kings bludgeoned the Mavs.

Wesley Matthews – Speaking of bludgeoned Mavs, Wes followed up a 26/3/3 line on Friday against the Warriors with a 12/3/3 line against the lowly Kings. Showing up in the wrong matchups, Wessey M!

Shane Larkin – My #1 stream option for the finals week had back-to-back solid starts since moving into the starting 5, going 16/3/7 in that Thursday win against the drama-Cavs and 14/1/5/3/0 Saturday against the Pacers, hitting 6-6 FT. Made well over 50% from the field in both as well. It’s not the sexiest game-by-game, but it turns sexy when you get 5 of em!

Dewyane Dedmon – Went nuts against the Bulls for a career-high 18 Pts in a 18/13/2 line Saturday night. Jim Jarmusch must be very proud of his titular character! (bonus points if you knew that reference without looking it up!)

Tyler Ennis – The best pure-PG on the Bucks? 9/4/12 against the Hornets, giving Ennis his first career dimebag. I remember my first dimebag! Wait, well, I don’t really that much… With the Bucks in such disarray, maybe they give Ennis some Viagra and see if he can last up to 4 hours.

Ish Smith – Flirted with a tripdub Saturday night, going 17/14/9 against the Blazers on Saturday. 14 rebounds?! Learn how to box out, Plumalien! (I made up that nickname because whichever one is on Duke right now kinda looks like an alien…)

Julius Randle – I dunno if Randle’s tripdub on Friday (13/18/10) was the weirdest on the season, or if it still belongs to Raymond Felton. When Felton hears someone say triple-double, he perks up thinking McDonalds is on the way…

Overall Thoughts: Mmmmmm, look at all these games! As we’ve been eying all season in Slim’s H2H Playoff Article, that 5-game week for the Nets and Bulls doe! But even with the 5 games, I could only find one streamer I felt good about off BKN and CHI… And that’s the guy we’ve talked about since last week, Mr. Shane Larkin. “Shannnnnne!” Somehow only 5% owned, 1% for each of the games the Nets get this week and he’s gonna close the year as their starting PG.

For the rest of my weekly picks, I’ve been big on J-Rich 2 for the past few weeks and gets an epicly nice schedule of BKN, @LAL, @SAC (yay!) and @POR. D.J. Augustin is also benefiting from a nice schedule (DAL, @MEM, @NO, SAC [yay!]) and is playing a ton. Finally, I’m going bold – which is probably dumb for a 1% owned guy that plays for SKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILES! But as mentioned above, St. Nich has had back-to-back usable games and could be a nice deep league flier.

Monday: With all these games this week, it’s no surprise we kick it off strong with a 10-game Monday. DAL, DEN, LAC, LAL and SAC all come in on the second night of a back-to-back, so be sure and check on your injured guys and vets this afternoon. Same goes for BKN, CHI, and OKC who enter b2bs on Mon/Tues. I doubt you’ll need to do much streaming early on, but my go-to is always the Kings who go to Portland. If any fringy Blazers are available, I’d give them a look.

Tuesday: 6 games on Tuesday will start filtering in streaming moves in unlimited-moves leagues, with GSW and WAS your only b2b teams. In limited moves leagues I’m not going too crazy with adds yet, but the game I would focus on if need be would be the Hornets at Philly. If he had 4 games he’d easily be a weekly play for me, but for some reason Jerami Grant continues to be vastly underrated at 26% owned. I’d like him a lot there, although he did leave early last night – be sure he’s healthy if you roll with him.

Wednesday: A fairly full humpday per the usual, with 9 games on the slate and 18 teams in action. DEN, LAC, and NO are your only Wed/Thur back-to-back squads, so be sure to check in with their statuses. The Wiz go @SAC which I highlight every matchup for, mayyyyybe you roll the dice on Jared Dudley, but he’s the only widely available option I like. As I mentioned as a weekly play, you gotta like Josh Richardson at the Lakers.

Thursday: Fairly busy Thursday with 6 games on the schedule, with BOS, BKN, CLE, and ORL on back-to-backs. CLE hosts BKN – on the one hand it should be an easy win and that might be the game they rest the starters, on the other they got embarrassed in Brooklyn last week so maybe they sit the vets Friday against the Hawks instead. I’m probably dipping into my 4-per-week moves in RCLs at this point and focusing on the [email protected] game. Both teams are on the 2nd night of a b2b, so I could see a few reserve options that are widely available as usable streamers.

Friday: Our usual chock-full Friday sees 20 teams in action, with DET, MIA, PHI, SAC and TOR on Fri/Sat b2bs. There’s a couple Sat/Sun stacks as well, so don’t feel forced to maximize your games on b2bs just yet. If you have an opening, this time Philly goes @CHA in a rematch and you gotta love your Heat going to Sacramento. Why I love J-Rich 2!

Saturday: In our only uncommon twist of the Finals week, we have only 5 games on Saturday. Luckily Sunday is very full, so we have CHI, IND and POR on Sat/Sun slates for end-of-week streaming. But before you live-and-die off a Sat/Sun stack waiver wire add, Sunday has 22 teams in action so you might be full Sunday anyway. Be sure and double-check your line-up beforehand. I couldn’t find any Bulls I liked enough in a 5-game week for weekly plays that were widely available, so I don’t feel great recommending anyone for the weekend. If Pau Gasol‘s knee is still holding him out I could see rolling the dice on Bobby Portis, but his minutes/role seems so sporadic even when Pau is out. The Pacers have had a few opportunities this year for b2b stacking yet all their streamers seem so blah. Maybe you go Rodney Stuckey in desperation. My main target will be the Blazers, and Moe Harkless who is on a nice little run again. Ed Davis is at 46% owned, but if he’s out there by the weekend and you need some D-centric big man stats, he would be a go-to. For a Saturday solo-stream, take a look at the Nugs as they host the Kings – I last-second made D.J. Augustin a weekly streamer (his 32% owned seemed to make him too widely-owned a call), as he should end his week with an exclamation point against the hapless Kings.

Sunday: I think this is the only time all season where Sunday has been the busiest day of the week. NBA schedulers knew that it was the finals of standard-league H2H fantasy basketball playoffs! It’s the only answer! You should easily have a full line-up to wrap up the week, but if you have an open spot, I might consider someone off the Jazz @PHO or maybe some of the Mavs @MIN.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and if you’re reading this, then good luck in the finals or home stretch of your roto leagues! If somehow you’re still reading and you’re bounced out of all your leagues, I LOVE YOU! Thanks for continuing to read and be a part of Razzball Nation. Good luck this week!

So Nurk – what to do here? He’s obviously benefited from Faried sitting, but Manimal may play the next game, which makes “The Big Bos” (Bosnia meets Bruce Lee? I like.) a risky pickup, wouldn’t you agree? For the next game or two, would you rather WCS (if DMC is out), Nurk (if Faried is out) or Taj for big man stats? And by those I mean blks, volume %s and brds. I’d add other guys like Davis etc but I’m streaming for the next three days and these three play two games each.

Man, Chicago SMH. My fav team and they are competely shting the bed. I saw Mirotic’s last box score against ATL (who they’ll meet tonight) and STILL won’t stream him ha! Twat.

I held on to Salah Dressing (a Tunisian staple) after his monster couple of dub dubs, but I’m not quite sure what in the hell Carlisle is doin with his 5-spot rotations! Two fouls and you sit for the entire game?? CARLIIIIIIISSSLLLLEEE! ..Tunisia, Bosnia, Serbia all repped in this comment so far. I should write ads for Benetton.

My sentiments exactly re: Muppet Man. Two seasons ago, I streamed him when he was starting for the Bucks for a month and the guy couldn’t stop notching dub dubs with elite blks and %s if he tried shoving a hand up his sock puppet-ass! Then they completely disregard his development/upside and sign a frontcourt guy who needs the ball to produce, on a team full of ball handling wings? Riiiiight.

Haha Jarmusch ref! I still don’t get his movies. Although I really enjoyed Ghost Dog!

You know how you love to stream guys against SAC? Would it now be assumed that bigs will go off against DAL? They have really long guys in Zaza, Salah and Javale but man are they getting humped in there!

@JB Gilpin: Dead Man was EXACTLY the movie I was referring to when I said I don’t get some of his movies haha. I think I need to rewatch it. We haven’t had a flick chat for a while now – interested to get your take on The Hateful 8. I’ll preface things by saying that I’m a Tarantino nut and he ranks right up there with Wes Anderson as my fav director.

Man, I’m really concerned about the Bulls. They NEED to win games to stay in the hunt for that 8th spot AND for us to confidently play our Bulls guys in fantasy! I’m a Pau owner so I seriously hope they keep things close. Pretty sure they lost today to the Hawks, so not a good start…

Ha, so it seems that I streamed J-Rich for his one dud. Dude played great tonight. Even with Dragic returning for the next one, do you think he’s worth a flier in my shallow roto? He will help me in some critical areas such as FGs, %s and stls. I am currently owning Barea because he’s hitting some decent FGs and his A/To rate is solid – another need of mine. Plus D-Will is still without a timetable.

Who do you like more as a stream tomorrow: Kieff v GSW, Zeller or Starvin Marvin v PHI (yay!), Mahinmi v CHI (yay?), or Landry v CHA (if Grant is out)? Fgs, %s, Brds and D.

@JB Gilpin: Regarding the JRich, Barea, Larkin debate, I may actually just drop G Harris for Richardson. Harris is very efficient, sure, but his supporting stats are erratic and Barea just had himself another great game with that 11:0 A/To! Plus he plays NY next which surely is a better matchup than Harris v MEM.

@Lasandro: Cool sounds like a plan. Hah yeah Dead Man is solid stuff! Yup Bulls are in dire straights. Need all hands on deck even if they’re hurt. J-Rich is good man! Luck of the draw you got the dud… Of those I mighta gone Mahinmi, but Starvin Marvin is 2nd.

Hey JP, this is Joel Bartilotta from Rotowire. I’m actually facing you in the semis this week after you snuck up and stole the division title in the Yahoo friends and family league. I just wanted to say I like the pod and wanted to wish you guys good luck. Hopefully my punting free throw strategy doesn’t come back to bite me

Razz up JB! Well my 3 cat punt team has made the final after finishing tied in my semi and resorting to regular season results as tie-breaker. To refresh you 14er H2H 9 cat with afg and ftm instead of fg% and ft% respectively. I punted points, assists and free throws although Draymond has made me a little better than expected in assists. After a poor start to season and withstanding Gobert, Carroll and Covington injuries and Ariza’s slow start I came on strong in second half of season. Was able to parlay Middleton into Crowder and Carroll into Starvin Marvin to strengthen my F stocks. Have been able to pick up G off the wire while DeAndre has been a stud. Danny Green – less said the better. Based on projections I have a shot at title even without Crowder. Will let you know how it goes.

Quarter Finals: Beat Steph Curry’s team by 1% FT. My team, the now legendary – Inglorious Ballers, shot 69% the whole season, but got its act together and shot 84% the one week it mattered – that and strategic streaming based on the 7 ahead and the Playoffs h2h schedule/bible.

Semi Finals: 4 am London time, beat the guy with the best record in the regular season 5-4! This was Westbrook and Whiteside’s squad – 11 rebounds and a handful of FG% to claim a spot in the Finals!

Oh and did I mention – I drafted 12th. Dead Last…and lost the first week 0-9!

Now for the finals – already picked up Larkin Nurk this morning…Here We Go!

As the Canadians say – Started from the bottom now my whole team EFFING HERE!

Alright. I’m in the finals. Woo woo! Now for the preface: it’s a 10-team, 9-cat and waivers (we use a FAAB) will clear Wednesday and Friday. Why does this matter? Because I have Jeff Teague and only plays two games from Wednesday onward, against two great defenses (@TOR, vs. CLE), so I plan to replace him with one of the following options come either Wednesday or Friday because all of the following play two games during the weekend versus Teague’s one (I put their schedules from Wednesday onward in parentheses):

@Joe: Sweet, nice work! Yup def like swapping out Teague. Man he’s got Pau and Kawhi banged up… I agree, AST should be fairly close even though I think you have the edge, as it stands now I like trying to shore em up with Colly

They go at each other on weds, but then LAL is off til Sunday while MIA goes at the kings. My questions is should i play Clarkson or Richardson on wed? that would determine if i should drop clarkson tmr or wait til wed.

Man, my team is a bit of a mess with all the streaming needed to get to the finals. My plan of having more guys playing the final week went up in flames! Right now I need to maximize games, which may be a switch with a better guard, like keeping Mudiay or picking up Scola for Clarkson (thanks for the advice above!). Are you trusting Scola’s 3point and scoring production? Haven’t watched any Pacers games lately.

@Miles Proudfoot: Hah yeah I have a little streaming mess too on one of my RCL finals teams. I’m not fully buying on Scola, the 3s lately seem sooooo flukish too. I’d prob ride Clarkson one more game before flipping to another option

@Wutang: Haha nice! I honestly miss college so much, best year of my life… Now I gotta work all the time! Remind me, limited adds, or unlimited? Meh I still might try to hold, at least thru Friday. Haha I’d be more apt to lose Rolo, REB easier to find than Elfrid’s 10 AST upside. Def considering streaming Ish. I think you got a good strategy there! REB and BLK might be light depending on your opp roster, but you can just cut bait and stream heavy those G!

Im liking Jose Calderon as a streamer tonight (against NOP) over Shane Larkin (against MIA). Mainly looking for assists. I think Jose could get a dime bag easily tonight (he got one against a putrid PHO team this month).

@Jake: Hmmmm, it’s close. Kings are also putrid and 4 games ago v them only 3/3/4. Calderon has been better lately though… With AST the goal I would guess Calderon gets more dimes, vacuum I would stick with Larkin

K so im in the championship game in a h2h weekly league we don’t use to’s we use fg% instead. The 5 cats i am focusing on because they are th only 5 i have chance at are 3’s, ast. blk rebounds n steals with the steals n blocks the most close at. so here is my line up
cp3
batum
devin booker
tobias
draymond
drummand
david lee
bismack
dj aug
rob cov

bench ..noel, courtney lee , nurkic.

play 2 of 3 ? bismarck , david lee or nurkic.. i think play nuric over lee and possibly c.lee over tobias. tobias doesn’t get any of the cats i need. or drop c lee and pick up shane larkin to play over tobias? i would also gain 2 games that way? THANK YOU FOR THE HELP !!

Hoops JB, what’s up? Semi-finals week for me. We like to white knuckle it to the bitter end…

I’m seriously considering benching Boogie and Pau in this weekly lock league. Am I bat-shit crazy for doing so or are the red flags significant enough?

Benching them would mean I completely punt the 3 categories my opponent is strongest in (FT% – BLK – PTS) cats I probably wouldn’t win with Boogie and Pau in (unless they played all their games and gave peak production), and instead invest in TO – FG% and REB, 3 cats that might have been closer otherwise.

during playoffs – play the opponent, not my best team in a vacuum, right? It feels like the right move but hard to bench those names. what do you think?

@dem ribbies: Haha nice! Yeah if I’m gonna whine and complain about some BS DNPs in REL, it gets rouggghhhh the final 10 days, but def can make it interesting!

Defffff red flags, Pau for sure. I don’t feel cinfident in him at all. Cousins already out today. I think you’re good benching both! And yup! Def play your opponent and minimize risk in weekly and I think benching both makes sense.

Need some help trying to get a win over the 1 seed! It looks like Demarcus is going to be out tonight and I need to recoup some of the stats he gives and am thinking about grabbing Willie Trill, with my potential drops being Covington, Korver, or potentially Myles Turner. What do you think?

@rhirano: @dem ribbies: Let’s do this man, upset alert! Yup nab Trill. Prob dropping Korver. Mmmmm, I like what Henson is doing, I like WCS for tonight a little more, Henson more for the week in total. Any other possible drops for Henson?

@That’s What Speed Do: Cool gotcha. So 2-week matchup, is it locked for both weeks? Or can you make adds for the 2nd week?

I dunno if I trust Aaron Gordon. I also don’t like Clarkson with only 3 games this week, if you can make adds by the 2nd week. I might take Augustin over Mack TBH. Then Larkin and J-Rich can def be adds for those first two. But before I lock in that answer lemme know how your matchup works 🙂

@JB Gilpin: Yup no problem. We get 7 total acquisitions and lineups do not lock, so yes I can make adds for the 2nd week. And I also just noticed this (not sure what the norm is) but we go all the way until the last day of the season, April 13th, so it’s actually a little over 2 weeks.

@That’s What Speed Do: Ah, yeah usually week 23 (I think?) goes the final 10 days. Wow, 7 adds?! That’s a ton for weekly. Def making all 3 of those moves, then addressing your final 4 for those last 10 days

@JB Gilpin: haha yeah throughout the season it was 3 adds per week, but once the 2 week playoffs rolled around it got bumped up to 6 and then 7 for the 2+ final week. Alright man sounds like a good plan. Not only do those guys have more games, but it seems like they have more favorable matchups as well.

As always, thanks for the great advice! I’ll be back in the comments more as the week progresses, gonna have to figure out what to do with Crowder once he comes back (hopefully Friday). Good luck to your teams!

@That’s What Speed Do: ah nice! Yeah that’s good it changes to fit the time range. Glad to help man! Unfortunately I got bounced in my fav league, but have a few RCL teams in the finals and Razzball in the semis of yahoo f&f!